


Simple Citizen

by wicked17writer



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Multi, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-14 21:52:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13599114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wicked17writer/pseuds/wicked17writer
Summary: Darcy/Tony/Steve poly relationship established. Darcy is pregnant. The men are tasked with coming up with the perfect baby name for the male heir.Short and Sweet.Just some fluffy fun.Complete one-shot.





	Simple Citizen

**Author's Note:**

> This could be connected to my other works, in the [A Citizen's Duty ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12122622/chapters/27493416) and the [Save the Citizen](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172052/chapters/30127287)  
> stories, but really this is just something fun and fluffy that doesn't necessarily share the same universe. 
> 
> Complete one-shot.

"So, how do we come up with our list of names?" Steve asked. He and Tony were having a baby naming meeting emergency. Darcy was itching to get things monogrammed. She wanted to nail down the final baby room decorations. Or that's what she said. Personally Steve was of the opinion that she wanted to start talking to her stomach, yelling at their unborn child by name, for kicking her in the bladder all the time. 

Tony and he hadn't really had time to sit down and talk about possible male child names. Darcy's decision to keep the sex of the babies a secret until a 'gender reveal' party had apparently meant, that he and Tony had to get to work coming up with their possible choices for baby names. Even if the possibility of having a boy, seemed highly unlike to Darcy, she now seemed more open to his logical assessment that their child had a 50/50 shot of being a boy. 

The plan was to narrow it down tonight and present the final male baby name choices for Darcy's approval tomorrow.

Tony dramatically flipped over the white board he had been standing in front of. On it was a knock out bracket that seemed familiar from the few sports programs Steve had managed to watch. 

"I figure," Tony threw him a black marker, "we'd each pick thirty names, and duke it out, name by name, eliminating choices one by one, until we were left with one winner, then offer Darcy our top three choices."

"Thirty?" Steve squawked. 

"I have a lot of name ideas." Tony said as he started writing. After about the third name, Tony looked over at him. "What's the matter Cap? Performance anxiety?"

Steve rolled his eyes at Tony. "No."

Steve uncapped the marker, his hand poised to write on his first line froze when he turned to Tony to say, "I just think this is a weird way to name a baby. I thought we'd have a discussion." 

He didn't think the two of them coming up with baby names would be so....formal or...mathematical. He thought he and Tony would just talk. Not...calculate.

"Yeah, well. We will. That's the whole point. We're going to discuss why we like, or don't like each name, more than another name, as we go along. This will force you to really make a decision, think critically, about which name you truly prefer. Then when we get to the middle. We...discuss." Steve considered Tony's reasoning and found that it didn't sound too bad when the other man put it like that.

"Okay," Steve agreed, "Just as long as we talk about it together....I just don't want this thing to become a competition."

"It won't." Tony assured before motioning to the board, "Now, get to writing. Who knows? Maybe we'll come up with some of the same names?"

Coming up with thirty baby names, seemed a little excessive to Steve, but, if that's what Tony asked, he'd do it. 

First Steve picked names of men who he would love to honor, "James" and "Buchanan" for Bucky. "Joseph" for his dad. "Abraham" for the man who invented the serum, his mentor Abraham Erskine. "Phillip" and "Chester" for his former commanding officer who gave him a chance when no one but Peggy gave him a second glance. And, "Carter" for Peggy. Carter sounded like a first name anyway.

He didn't want to add all the Howling Commando's names, because it would make choosing between one of them just that much harder, but he always like the sound of Dugan's middle name, so he added, "Aloysius"

He added "Rogers" and "Grant" even though he had a feeling, Tony wouldn't like the baby being so blatantly named after him. That was ten. Just twenty more names to go.

Steve thought back to some of his favorite stories and added, "Sawyer" for Tom Sawyer, "Arthur" for Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, then added "Doyle" for good measure. 

After that he just started thinking of people he knew, "Nicholas, Henry, Jack,  
Sebastian, Robert, John, William, David, Kenneth, Michael, Clark, Douglas, Gerald, Walter, Tommy" They were all fine names. Strong names. But, he had no connection to them. So he didn't write them down.

Steve looked over at Tony. He had apparently approached this name thing very differently than Steve had. Tony listed his thirty names alphabetically, his choices were, "Alec, Beau, Clark, Dexter, Edwin, Fierro, Grey, Gale, Heathcliff, Indiana, James, Kirby, Leonardo, Malcolm, Nobel, Oberon, Ozymandius, Parker, Quincy, Rohan, Riddick, Sterling, Tyrion, Ulysses, Vincent, Wayne, Wesley, Xander, Yukon Cornelius, Zuko"

Steve looked at his list of 13 names, "James, Buchannan, Joseph, Abraham, Phillip, Chester, Carter, Aloysius, Rogers, Grant, Sawyer, Arthur, Doyle", staring at Tony's list, Steve added one more name to his list before he declared himself done..."Howard". It just didn't seem right to leave out Tony's father, the man who helped make Steve Captain America, off the list of names of men who deserved to live on through means of a legacy name.

"Okay, so lets--" Tony stopped when he saw Steve's list. Tony’s jaw clenched shut. Tony glared at him for a second but then averted his eyes. Tony didn't say a word, just walked across and drew a line through Howard's name. 

"Go over to my list and cross out any names you just can't stand or are connected to bad memories." Tony ordered in a gruff voice, avoiding eye contact with Steve.

Steve could tell that Tony was...not happy, to say the least. So he did as the other man had bid and went to stand in front of Tony's list. Some of the names on his list were...weird.

Steve started from the bottom and crossed out "Zuko, Yukon Cornelius, Riddick, Nobel, Kirby, Heathcliff, Fierro, and Beau."

Turning to look at Tony, he saw in addition Tony had crossed off, "Chester, Carter, Rogers, and Grant". That still left them with...22 Tony picks, and 10 Steve picks.

"Now what?" Steve asked.

Tony gave him a wolfish smile. "Now we input the data, and argue why each name is better than the other, until only one name is left standing."

"But you have more names than I do." Steve complained.

"Not my problem, I told you to write down thirty, you didn't listen."

Steve looked at their lists, "But wait, we both listed James. Doesn't that mean that name wins?" 

Tony glared at Steve. "No."

Steve watched as Tony inputted the names onto the bracket. "First up, Sterling vs. Sawyer, what do you think is the better name?"

"...Sawyer?" Steve answered tentatively, not sure why Tony would ask, seeing as how Sawyer was one of his picks.

Tony surprised him by saying, "Agreed." 

He then moved the name "Sawyer" up a bracket. Steve looked on in confusion. 

"But, Sterling was one of your picks? Why'd you vote against it?" Steve asked.

Tony turned and looked at him over his shoulder, "Tom Sawyer, verses Roger Sterling from Mad Men? Yeah, I like the name Sawyer better."

"What?"

"I'm not perfect. I don't know what name is best, or what name Darcy will like best, these are all just guesses. I'm guessing what she will like, what you will like, what names we all three can like. I like all of the names I picked. I don't have any attachment to any one name in particular. That's why I devised the bracket system. I figured I'd let you choose, and if I disagreed, I'd argue for my choice, you'd argue for yours and who ever feels less strongly loses."

"But what if we both feel strongly about--"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Tony began tapping his foot as he scratched at his chin, "Now, next match. Let's make it easy on you, 'Leonardo verse Wayne'. You were right about me having more picks so might as well narrow down my list some." Tony looked at Steve expectantly.

"Leonardo. For the painter." Steve reasoned.

"And the Ninja Turtle." Tony added as he moved the name 'Leonardo' down a bracket.

"Quincy verses Ulysses? I'm a fan of ancient mythology myself, so I'm leaning towards Ulysses. What about you Rogers?"

Steve nodded, "Yeah. I liked the Iliad."

"How do you feel about Phillip verses Parker." Tony asked pointing the end of his marker at Steve.

"Phillip." Steve said succulently, "Parker, makes me think about parking a car."

"Okay. I can see that." Tony moved Phillip down. 

"Wesley verses Xander." Tony prompted.

"I like the sound of Xander." Steve answered as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

Tony nodded, but then argued, "Yes, me too. Except Wesley has the dual connection of Angel the Series and the movie the Princess Bride, and I think Darcy would like Wesley more."

Steve shrugged. He didn't understand those references, but Tony's logic seemed sound, and he wasn't attached to either name. "Okay. You convinced me. Wesley."

Tony smiled brightly. "See. It's not so hard is it?"

Steve rolled his eyes at Tony's smug expression. "What about, Aloysius verses Ozymandius?"

Staring at the two names, Steven answered honestly, "We could nick name the baby, Oz or Ozzy. Darcy would like that...wouldn't she?"

"My thinking exactly! Ozymandius wins....you know what. I'm going to eliminate Gale, Grey, Clark, Indiana, Oberon, Dexter, aaaaaannd Vincent. I'm just not feeling those names anymore. Any objections Steve?"

Steve shook his head. "Go ahead. Might as well, eliminate Doyle too. I wasn't really attached to it. "

"So I think it's safe to say James verses James, means James wins and moves on. But what about Abraham verses Alec?"

"I like the name Abraham because--"

"Because of Erskine, I get that." Tony began tapping his marker against his hand.

"Yes, because he was a man who I knew. But also because he told me when I was still short and weak and sickly, that 'a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion'. He saw something in me that no one else did, not even myself really."

Tony wiped away a fake tear. "Beautiful story, touching. And sure, you win. I just picked Alec, cuz I figured with Darcy as the mom, the kids bond to be a 'smart alec' and I didn't see any point in burying the lead."

Steve threw his head back and laughed. 

"Okay, Malcolm verses Rohan?"

"Malcolm...I guess?"

"I don't know what Darcy would prefer, Mal from Firefly or Rohan from the Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog....so sure. Let's go with the space cowboy."

"What?"

"Don't think about it." Tony moved the name Malcolm down. "Next battle, Edwin verses Tyrion."

"Edwin." Steve responded instantly. Tony gave him a soft smile before he quietly nodded and moved the name down.

"And last but not least. Buchannan verses Joseph." Tony stared at Steve, "So who do you want to name the baby after more? Your best buddy Bucky or the dead dad you never knew?"

Steve's eyes flickered between the two names. It was too hard. "You choose."

Tony made 'hmm' noise, and then moved the name Buchannan down. "Let's just leave the dead fathers out this process completely shall we?"

Steve nodded even though Tony was writing and couldn't see him. "Besides, Bucky is a much cooler nick name when compared to 'Joe'."

"Now we...match off the rest of the names right? Head to head again?" Steve asked, making sure he understood.

"Yeah...or we could just give her this list. And make it Darcy's problem." Steve stared at the list of names left. 

"What if we each got rid of two names? And then called it a day?" Steve purposed.

Tony gave him a long look before walking up to the board and crossing out, "Bye by, Ulysses and Phillip."

Tony handed the marker over to Steve, "Go for it."

Steve approached the list. He didn't mind any of the names on the list really, but he wasn't _that_ fond of Tom Sawyer or the idea of naming the child after a 'space cowboy'. So he crossed off Malcolm and Sawyer. 

"So the kid will be named either, Edwin, Buchannan, Leonardo, Wesley, Ozymandius, Abraham,...or James." Tony summarized. 

"Seems like a safe bet to me." Steve volunteered.

“….Or Tony Junior.” Tony said with a sly grin as he capped his marker. 

“No.” Steve said flatly. 

“Uh, fine.” Tony said as he rolled his eyes, then his eyes brightened, and he offered, “What about…Stony?”

Steve squinted his eyes as Tony explained, “Stony? Get it? Steve plus Tony equals Tony. I even put the ‘st’ before the ‘ony’.”

Steve smiled begrudgingly at the excitement in Tony’s voice. “You’re smiling! I’m putting it on the list. Stony. Stony Stark.”

“Rogers.” Steve argued.

“Stony Stark-Rogers.” Tony conceded. 

Steve let out a chuckle, “What about Stony Rogers-Stark?”

Tony gave him a flat look. Steve held up his hands, “What about Stony Lewis-Stark-Rogers?”

Tony sighed as if put upon, “Fine. Stony Lewis-Stark-Rogers….top of the list.”

Steve smiled toothily back at the billionaire genius and echoed him as they walked out of the room together, “Top of the list.”

**Author's Note:**

> How'd you like it?  
> If you liked it leave me a kudos!  
> If you didn't you can yell at me in the comments.  
> If you want to let me know what you liked, let me know in the comments.  
> Did you get the play on words, "Simple Citizen" and "Simple Simon"?  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
